I have been dealing with a constant case of diarrhea and we've made a trip to Mexico and back. There've been a few other happenings as well!
Joe took his licensing exam last week on Wednesday. He passed and is, even as I type this, in his orientation/training class. Yesterday they met from 8AM til about 12:30PM. Covered mostly benefits. Today......who knows? I'll find out in about 6 hours. They do have an excellent benefits package. I read through everything while we were in the car over the weekend. They will pay for a portion of his medical and he can cover me. We don't know the cost on that yet--have to wait to receive a packet in the mail, but we're paying over $600 a month out of our pockets now for really poor coverage, so it's bound to be a savings. They have a 401(k) where you can contribute up to 20% of your earnings and they match up to 6%. You have to be employed a year before you're eligible. The 401(k) is a great idea for the long term. Right now, with our current debt load and income, we could be retired and on Social Security about 4 months before we'd have to think about losing the house! But, we're planning on taking every spare penny earned in the next 12 months to work on our debts. They do have disability insurance (that's Nevada's answer to worker's comp). And, they offer life insurance. We will be buying that! Again, with the current debts, I'd be homeless in short order if something happened to Joe. And we found out that Joe does get paid for this week of training--$500. That will be welcome. He just told me he has only 2 deals on his desk at The Good Loan Lender. And, we do have some signing money, but that won't keep the wolf from the door long. I'm not particularly worried because I am so convinced this job opportunity is from the Lord and meant not only to meet our needs but also to provide the harvest we've been praying for. We've planted plenty of seed and we do so joyfully, grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the kingdom. I'm not the kind of person who does a good job witnessing face to face. Joe can do that sort of thing well, but not me. But one of the ministries we contribute to makes the statement that for every dollar contributed, a person signs a decision card for Christ. I think there WILL be a few crusty old diamonds in my crown after all.
We headed out of town, Yuma-bound, late Friday morning. We arrived just in time for dinner. I am greatly reducing my intake of wheat based products because I think they are what's causing my stomach problems. So, poor me, dinner was a steak and salad. The place we ate served these amazing dinner rolls, but I avoided them like the plague. Truth be told, I've been off as far as appetite goes for a good week now. I'm actually probably only eating about 1/2 as much as usual and subsisting on juices, trying to cut down on the trips to the bathroom. In fact, last Thursday, I ate nothing--just drank juice. I was way too afraid of what would happen if I ate solids and then tried to ride for 5 hours in the car....... We managed to get all of our meds. We also picked up some things for one of Joe's Gideon buddies. And, we picked up some amoxycillin for Jennifer. Not long ago, she had a breast infection--ouch, those are SO painful--and couldn't even find time to go to the doctor. So, I had her research which antibiotics she could take while nursing and amoxycillin was on the list. So, she is now the proud owner of 120 pills. I don't even want to THINK about her going through another breast infection without help. We were not happy to note that the Mexican meds are going up in price. For example, last trip we got 100 of my blood pressure pills for $17. This time it was 100 for $22. But, that's still a bargain compared to 60 for $44 here..... I should have made an appointment to get my teeth cleaned but just didn't get around to it. Stupid of me since we probably won't be going back for 6 months. Oh well..... We crossed the border Saturday morning, got pretty much only what we'd come for, came back to the gold old USA and headed back home Saturday afternoon. We are happy to report that the dogs survived our 36 hour absence.
We were tired on Sunday, mighty tired. And, it got to be a messy, crowded day. Church in the early AM, of course, followed by a carryout breakfast from IHOP. Then I put together a grocery list and Joe ran to the grocery store. Then we went to the Pumpkin Patch. Everyone was a bit out of sorts and it wasn't all that much fun. I felt bad about that. Seems Jason lost his briefcase last week with scads of personal information in it--banking stuff, credit card info, kids Social Security cards and birth certificates, Will's adoption papers, etc. So, besides making all the calls to cancel bank accounts and credit cards, he was pretty upset with himself and spilling it on everyone else....... We had dinner at Denny's with the kids, then Joe made a run to meet up with the guy for whom we'd picked up meds so we could hand 'em off to him and get paid. I have made the decision to quit taking HRT, so I was able to sell a couple of bottles I had here to his wife which recouped our investment in that little bit of drug inventory.
Joe was supposed to help me with the babysitting last night but got called at the last minute for a signing. It was an outside signing so he had to make the tough choice between helping me babysit and earning $150. It should be easy for you to guess what he chose. Unfortunately, my diarrhea returned with a vengeance yesterday afternoon (I had been foolhardy enough to have a piece of toast for breakfast), including, of course, a round of it just as I was scheduled to go out the door. As it turned out, I was really too messed up to babysit. With a not-quite-1-year-old crawling around, you can't afford to have a babysitter who has to spend 15 minutes + in the bathroom every half hour to an hour. So, I ended up leaving the boys with Jason. I haven't heard how that went.....
I got caught unawares with a scrapping project. A good month ago, one of the scrappers who is pretty well known in the community lost everything in a house fire. A digital scrapbooking kit is being put together to sell with the proceeds going to her. I volunteered to do some quickpages (where the page is all done except for slipping in your photos, adding a title and some journaling) and then the back stuff started, followed by the sinus infection, followed by the diarrhea. I promptly forgot what I had promised to do. Thankfully, the lady coordinating the project sent out a reminder today as I had totally spaced it. I've got the pages done now, just need to save them and upload them for her. Phew! And, this new store team is kicking my butt. There's a weekly (highly recommended) page to be done and posted, plus a monthly one for which my team is responsible, plus another monthly one for which all the creative team members are responsible, plus they put together a special kit and needed pages from all of us for that. I think I've done 4 pages that will be posted this week for that one store alone.
Well, enough of this. I've got a To Do list as long as Alaska so I need to start on that. Here are a few pages to hold you til next time:
There is no chance that I'll be able to return to my parents' hometown in the near future. But through robertpence.com, I've been able to see some of the sites I remember. I downloaded this photo from that site. I used Mary Fran's Americana Collection. I also used Neighbours, the solids collection that coordinates with the Americana Collection. The title was done with Alphawit--Americana ABC's.
I've been trying to get a usable photo of this for a long while. This is DGS#2's preferred method of having a bath--Cuddled in Big Brother's arms with Mama doing the washing. I used Mary Fran's newest creation, Waddles and Whimsy for this. I also used Waddles Too, the add on for bg papers and the Lil Bits add on. All of Mary Fran's products are available at nitwitcollections.com.
My DD took this photo of DGS#2> I know I'm prejudiced, but he's such a cutie! I had just edited the photo and run filters on it, etc., when Lynn Grieveson sent me links to her latest kit. This kit is called Amelie and it's available at Designer Digitals. I thought it was just right for this photo! I used a frame by Amanda Rockwell as a clipping mask for the scalloped frame. The flower stem is from Lynn's Lazy Days kit. The alphas are from various kits by Lynn, some used as is, some recolored, some used as clipping masks for paper from the kit.
In the 40's, if you were a "good" girl, and you were going out of town to see your boyfriend, you took someone along to chaperone. My mother's "chaperone" was Gladys, her best friend, and later her matron of honor. I used Kim Hill's Weathered Classics which seemed to have just the right feel for this page. This page was done for the weekly "CT Reveal" at ACOT where I am guesting this month. The digi CT is doing layouts featuring Kim Hill's products!
I had actually scrapped this page a couple of days ago. Then Mary Fran put her Bear Necessities kit in the store and I happily started over! So many cute embellishments in this kit. Don't forget to check out the add-ons. Mary Fran's kits are available at nitwitcollections.com.
I love this picture of little Atticus snuggled close to Mama, holding tight to her pajama top so she can't get away......I used Mary Fran's kit called Happy Go Lucky. I used a border by Andrea Burns as a clipping mask to create the border on this page. I used a freebie by Andrea Victoria for the butterfly's "trail". The cardboard is by Dani Mogstad. The alpha is a freebie from long ago by Jenn Star. You can find Mary Fran's kits at nitwitcollections.com.
When Mom's around and DGS is supposed to go with Grandma and Grandpa, there are always crocodile tears over the whole thing. Of course, as soon as Mom's out of sight, he's happy as a clam..... I used LaWanna Desjardin's Joy of Life, available at Scrapbook Bytes, for this page. The shoelace bows are from her Retro Funk kit. I've also used a ribbon and button element from her Hello Sunshine kit. The alpha is her Sunwashed Alpha also available at SBB. The corner tear is by Heather Ann Melzer.
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